Kingdom Compassion and the Killing of Children

Sanctity of Life Sunday

But recall the former days when, after you were
enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes
being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being
partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on the
prisoners, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your
property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better
possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your
confidence, which has a great reward.

Broad and Diversified Pro-Life Ministry

Let me begin by saying this morning that in the diversity of the
body of Christ some Christians should be focusing pro-life energy
on the enactment of legislation that will protect the unborn. Other
Christians should focus pro-life energy on educational strategies
that promote the wisdom of sexual chastity before marriage and
heterosexual faithfulness in marriage. Other Christians should
focus pro-life energy on crisis pregnancy ministries—counseling,
housing, health care. Other Christians should focus pro-life
energies on adoption services—counseling, foster care, new
parent connections. Other Christians should focus their pro-life
energy on post-abortion ministries of counseling and care. Other
Christians should focus their pro-life energy on sidewalk
counseling or other forms of peaceful, public demonstration. Some
Christians should specialize in extraordinary prayer, some should
specialize in thinking and writing, and some should specialize in
public action.

We must guard against the reverse blind spot of the pro-abortion
people. They talk much about compassion to women in crisis
pregnancies and about the pain of being an unwanted child. But they
do not talk about the pain, the indignity, the injustice, the
brutality done against the unborn in abortion. And one of their
primary defenses against the pro-life efforts is to say that we
talk a lot about compassion to the unborn but show little concern
for mothers in crisis or unwanted children after birth. To which I
respond: let's not have this blind spot. Let's not be imbalanced.
Let's admit (on both sides of the issue) how imperfect we are. But
let's keep the ledger straight.

You need to be able to answer people that this indictment is not
true. Pro-life people as a whole are very active in providing the
broad range of ministries for women and children in need. See the
fact sheet "Free Help for Pregnant Women" which lists almost 30
agencies in Minnesota addressing these issues. Add to that the
major efforts of evangelical groups and coalitions engaged in
struggling for the health and wholeness of the family at the
national and state level. And add to that the impulses for personal
integrity and honesty and decency and justice and purity and love
that flow out into society, unacknowledged(!), from thousands of
Bible-based, Christ-exalting churches. And you will see that the
indictment that we are not engaged in the larger picture is not
true. And that accusation is often used as a kind of fog spread
over the debate to conceal the injustice of the basic pro-abortion
principle, namely, that the right of a woman not to be pregnant is
greater than the right of an unborn child not to be killed.

There are two million couples waiting to adopt children today in
America—60 homes for every child that needs one. There are
long lists of parents willing to take and love children with Down's
Syndrome. There are one hundred couples on the waiting list to take spina bifida babies no matter how severe. And the reason there are
tie-ups in adopting some mixed race and minority children is not
because there are not enough willing pro-life parents. It is owing
to complicated legal limitations and parental rights and agency
policies. The resources are there to fold all children into
families who want them.

Restricting the right of doctors and mothers to kill unborn
children will not result in greater misery for those children. When
the heart of a nation is willing to kill its unborn children to
avoid having to care for them, it is hard to imagine this heart
being willing to care for them. But if the heart of the nation
could be turned so that it was no longer willing to kill its unborn
children, then it is not so hard to imagine that this heart could
care for them.

Non-Violent, Peaceful Protesting

I want to address the issue of non-violent, peaceful protesting
this morning. The reason I began the way I did was simply to show
that I see such protests as one of many strategies in the pro-life
effort, not the only one, and not the most important one—but
one among many, and a good catalyst at this time, and one that a
Christian can pursue with a clear, biblically informed conscience.
What I can say in this brief message is very limited, and I refer
you to last year's message (January 15, 1989: "Rescuing Unborn
Children: Required and Right") and to the booklet: Abortion: A
Pastor's Perspective for a fuller treatment of the issue.

There is a Rescue being planned for tomorrow somewhere in the
Metro area. Many of us plan to participate as much as we can. It
simply means sitting down peacefully in front of a door behind
which they destroy children, and saying by our physical presence:
the abortions that happen behind these doors are so unjust, so
inhumane, so violent, so contrary to the legal foundations of our
country (the worth of life), that today we are willing to risk
unjust arrest if we can but spare one child and heighten the sense
of urgency in our society that these children should be loved and
protected by law.

Can this kind of public demonstration of compassion for the
unborn (and for their mothers!)—trespassing to save life and
to expose laws that endorse killing—can this kind of
demonstration be part of a faithful, biblical witness to the
kingdom of Christ? Does the kingdom of God sometimes show itself in
this way? I am not asking: Can we establish the kingdom of God on
earth by social or political means? I have no utopian notions of a
Christian America before Jesus comes. All I mean is: Can this kind
of peaceful, non-violent, ready-to-suffer sit-in be one way that
the truth and beauty of God's kingdom, which is not of this world,
shines in this world?

My answer is yes. And I would like to look at just one inspiring
passage of Scripture with you to stir up your thought and prayer
about this matter.

Hebrews 10:32–34 and Kingdom Compassion

Hebrews 10:32 says that in the early days of this Christian
community there had been "a hard struggle with sufferings." "Recall
the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a
hard struggle with sufferings." Some kind of persecution had fallen
on the church. It was evidently an official kind because in the
next verse there is a reference to prison. This is not just mob
violence or harassment at work. It is official, state
opposition.

Verse 33 shows that there are two groups in the church, the
first one suffering abuse and afflictions, and the second one
suffering because they somehow identified with the first group. " .
. . sometimes [or better: "some"] being publicly exposed to abuse
and affliction, and sometimes ["some"] being partners with those so
treated." So some get the first brunt of the persecution, and
others choose to come forward and show solidarity (as we might say
today) with them: "being partners [sharers] with those so
treated."

Then verse 34 explains how the second group showed their
solidarity with those who were being persecuted in prison: "For you
had compassion on the prisoners and you joyfully accepted the
plundering [or the confiscation] of your property." The first group
had been put in jail for some reason. That may have meant in that
culture that they would be given no food or that they would be
beaten and left untended. So the rest of the believers faced a
moral dilemma: "Shall we take a low profile in the present
controversy and work through indirect channels, or shall we go to
the prison and kindle the anger of the authorities and risk losing
our possessions and maybe our lives?"

They chose to take the risk of public, compassionate
identification with the prisoners and the result was the
confiscation of their property (v. 34). So it was a great risk to
go to the prison to stand up for those who were suffering unjustly.
It cost them their furniture and their homes it seems. Perhaps
more.

But it says they accepted this loss with joy: " . . . and you
joyfully accepted the plundering of your property." How could they
do that? Where do they get the freedom and courage to risk losing
everything for the sake of compassion?

The answer is given in the last part of verse 34: " . . . since
you knew that you had a better possession and an abiding one."
Hebrews 12:28 says, "Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom
that cannot be shaken." What the writer means is that the
Christians were so confident that they had received the kingdom and
that the kingdom was so unshakable, and that it was so much more
glorious than all earthly possessions, that it was no ultimate loss
to lose earthly possessions on the Calvary road that leads to this
kingdom. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven . . . Rejoice in that day
and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:10).

Do you see then how the truth and beauty of the kingdom of God
broke into that situation? Since it was the certainty and glory of
the kingdom hope that gave the freedom and courage to risk and
suffer and love, that risking
and suffering and loving is the light
of the kingdom breaking into the darkness of society. Love that is
willing to suffer in hope of the kingdom is the power and the light
of the kingdom breaking into this world. Since the kingdom is the
source of the power to love, the power to love is the light of the
kingdom.

One Possible Objection

Now how would you have responded in that situation if some of
the Christians opposed the visit to the prison and argued like
this: This is going to antagonize the government officials who put
our friends in jail. God has ordained the government and we are
supposed to be submissive to it. Not only that, there is no
explicit biblical command that says we have to risk animosity in
this way to visit our friends in prison. We are only commanded to
love them; and there may be other safer ways to work for their
release. And not only that, if we publicly identify with prisoners
in this society, it's going to stir up so much anger that the
witness of Christ will be hurt in the city. And not only that, the
officials could confiscate our property and we could lose
everything we've got. Then how are we going to do the work of the
ministry? This is not a prudent strategy.

There is no biblical command that says tomorrow's Rescue is the
way you should love unborn children. It will antagonize some
officials. It will irritate some in our society. You would risk
losing some of your earthly possessions. There are other safer ways
to work for the unborn. Getting thrown in prison or losing
possessions through fines has never seemed to the world like an
effective church growth principle.

But there they went, off to visit the prisoners—with the
blessing of Almighty God. And tomorrow many will rescue. Why?
Because when the compassion of Christ for people who are suffering
unjustly combines with the confidence of kingdom hope, the power of
courage and freedom and meekness is unleashed, and some (not all)
are called to let the light of the kingdom shine through peaceful,
public solidarity with the unborn, and if necessary, through
suffering.

I invite you all to meditate on this text this afternoon and to
seek the Lord as to whether he is calling you in this way. You
won't know if you don't ask. And if he is not, he is calling you to
the tremendously crucial role of intercession tomorrow morning.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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